Planning application for new micro-tannery approved

United Kingdom

Published: 07 November, 2016

The local authority in the county of Leicestershire, UK, has approved the transformation of a former agricultural building into a new micro-tannery specialised in processing small volumes of goatskins.

The Harborough District Council is said to have approved the planning application for the new tannery on November 3, subject to a number of conditions, including work beginning within three years.

As previously reported by ILM, the project will lead to the transformation of a “largely redundant” agricultural building into a micro-tannery, which is to produce no more than 150kg of crust leather per week.

Jack Millington, founder of the new British leather brand Billy Tannery, told local media the meat industry in the UK has a considerable supply of goatskins available but these are either tanned abroad or destroyed, and that he is determined to change this by collaborating with top British leather accessories designers to create a range of leather goods that are to be manufactured in the UK.

The Billy Tannery is to launch a range of bags and accessories in spring 2017. "We hope to raise enough money to launch the business as a direct-to-consumer retail brand. We are starting small but have ambitious goals to grow the brand and tan more and more kid leather, this will definitely require the creation of production jobs in the tannery”, Millington told local media.